Belt-fastening.



P.KENNEDY.

BELT FASTEN|NG..

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 28, IQIL 1, 1 34, 1 39, Patented Apr. 6,1915.

INVENTOR Paw/ck fan/7 ATTORNEYS THE NORRIS PETERS c0, FHOTO-LITHQ. WASHINGTON, D. C

, invented certain new PATRICK KENNEDY, OF NEVI YORK, N. Y.

BELT-FASTENING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 6, 1915.

Application filed June 28, 1911. Serial No. 635,781.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, PATRICK KENNEDY, a citizen of the United States, residing at and whose post-office address is 17 7 Putnam avenue, borough of Brooklyn, county of Kings, city and State of New York, have and useful Improvements in Belt-Fastenings; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The invention relates to improvements in belt fastenings, and the object is to produce such a fastening that the thickness of the belt will not be substantially modified at the joint, the fastening will not unduly project on either side of the belt, and the joint will not materially affect the longitudinal and transverse flexibility of the belt or reduce its strength; and of such character that the fastening is not weakened by the bending incident to repeatedly passing over the pulleys.

Numerous kinds of belt fasteners have heretofore been employed and although each sought to overcome some particular difficulty, none appears to be widely applicable to all the requirements specified above. In some cases, the ends of the belt have been shaved down or beveled 0E and then fastened with rivets or the like, but the resulting joint is comparatively weak, while the loss of belting material is often serious. In other cases the abutting ends of the belt are cut square and laced together with leather strips or the like, resulting in modified thickness and reduced strength. In still other cases metal fasteners, links, wire and the like have been employed, but these have been so shaped or disposed that the joint possessed little or no flexibility and therefore the fastening devices quickly broke after repeated bending. In most of these cases the difficulties were aggravated by idler pulleys or belt tightening devices.

In accordance with my invention, the above results are obtained by a simple and durable means in a manner which permits of ready application and detachment when desired and with a minimum loss of belting material, as will hereinafter be described.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrating the preferred embodiment of my invention, Figure 1 is a plan view of a belt showing the fasteners in place at the joint, a part of the belt being cut away for better illustration; Fig. 2 is a cross section at the joint, showing in more detail a single fastening strip in place; Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a single fastening strip; Fig. 4 is a partial section of a belt with the fastening strip on the outer surface, and with a form of rivet particularly suitable for such application; and Fig. 5 is a detail further illustrating that form of rivet.

Referring to the drawings, 1 is a belt joined together along the line 22 by means of fastening strips 8 and rivets 4. The belt 1 may be composed of any number of plies or layers of any ordinary material, such as leather, rubber, canvas or the like, having any thickness, so long as the belt possesses sufficient stiffness to transmit the longitudinal pull without undue creasing at the rivets. The joint line, or the line of the abutting ends of the belt, may be straight, broken, curved, or according to any configuration, the essential feature being that the joint may be spanned by transversely extending fastening strips.

The fastening strips 3 maybe made of steel, brass or like material, of suflicient length to properly span the joint, and of sufficient width and thickness to have requisite strength and to accommodate rivets of suflicient diameter to prevent tearing of the belt at the rivet holes. The fastening strips are preferably narrow, so as to allow maximum flexibility in passing over the pulleys and idler. In this way, slipping or vibration of the belt or bending of the fastening devices does not occur. The fastening strips should also be sufficiently thin so as not to produce any objectionable bulge on the faces of the belt, and are preferably sufficiently short and flexible to allow full contact over the faces of crown pulleys. The two ends of each fastening strip may be beveled to a sharp edge, so that they may easily be inserted in the belting material. They may be provided with any number of holes, 5, to receive the rivets, although two on each side give requisite strength to the joint and sufficiently reduce the tendency of the belt to crease or to pull open near the ends of the splice.

The rivets, 4:, may be hollow or solid and of copper, brass or other suitable material, and may consist of one piece, or of a shank and one or two metal rings. In that case the shank of the rivet should be of such length that upon compression of its projecting end or ends, the rivets are flush with the faces of the belt, as shown in Figs. 1 and :2, and hence the thickness of the belt isnot materially modified at the joint.

To form a joint in a belt, as along 22 of Fig. 1, the two ends of the belt are out to meet along the proposed line and holes'f'or the rivets are punched or cut in the belt at the proper points. The fastening strips are pushed into one end of, the belt so that their holes register with the holes in the'bel-t, and then riveted in place. Then the fastening strips are pushed into the other end of the belt and riveted as before. Near the ends of 7 in the fastening strips are embedded in the material ofthe belt, is preferable where an idler or other pulleys engagin the reverse side of the belt are to be emp oyed, but in other cases it may be preferable to place the fastening strip-son the outsideof the belt, as in :Fig. 4. In that case any suitable rivets or other attaching means may be employed,

I claim is z 1. In a belt fastening, the combinationwithbelt ends abuttingeach other in the plane of the belt and obliquely to the length thereof, of a plurality of short narrow fasten'in'g strips extending transversely of the belt across the line of abutment and attached to the two ends of the belt on the opposite sides of said line. 7

'2. In abelt fastening, "the combination withbeilt ends abutting each other in 'the' "plane of the belt and obliquely to the length thereof, of a plurality of short and narrow thin flexible fastening strips of metal extending transversely of the belt across :the line of abutment and attached to sides ofsaicl line. 7 v

.In testimony whereof I afiix in presence of two witnesses.

' PATRICK KENNEDY;

the two ends of the belt on the opposite my signature,

Witnesses:

'Aoe. 'TREAoWELL, Jn, I Mrs. EDWIN FRENCH. V

Goblet-'0! flflnptefit may be 'bbtaine'd 10;- cent: ma, tyruaamng m *icommimoneroi Patents, wumnm ne." j v I 

